Carry Me Safe To Shore
by CTtheOrangeNinja
Summary: Ending the game can cost more than just lives... Death Note AU, where the high seas are the main stage for L and Light. One-shot. Complete.


(((*)

The man paused at the door, searching the crowd that lay before him in the dark tavern. He was looking for one thing very specifically, rather, one person. This would be his greatest torment, catching up to the one who had evaded him for so long. But... if he ended the chase now... then the game would be over. He would lose his greatest partner. The most brilliant mind that he had ever known, besides his own. Was it worth it? To turn his man in? To end the game?

Chaos. It was a beautiful word, invoking such fear, such awe, such inspiration. It was happening in the world somewhere right now, happening to someone, happening within his own heart. He strode towards the one he had been looking for, the tall one in the back with the bright amber eyes and the brown hair that gleamed even in the dimness.

"You are under arrest." Four very simple words that spelled the end of the game. "You are charged with being one murderer and thief, the identity know as the Black Pirate, Kira." There. That name hushed the whole crowd, and he felt eyes on his back. After all, it was not every day that someone convicted supposedly the greatest pirate in all history. But the queen's orders were clear. And L. Lawliet would follow them to the slightest detail. **Capture Kira. Bring him in to the authorities. And then... hang him.** "Light Yagami. Do you deny this claim?"

Those eyes. Those eyes locked onto Lawliet's. They held so many secrets...so many lies. They were the eyes that had first been introduced to him as the eyes of a young man, a privateer just like himself, who had somehow left Japan behind and worked himself into the queen's good graces. All this, just to through it all away and become a pirate. Those were not Light's eyes. They belonged to Kira. A thief. A killer.

The man sitting next to Yagami rose slowly. L knew him as Ryuk, Light's first mate. He made a move towards him pistol, but Yagami's hand stilled him. Kira spoke softly, "No. It would not be good of you to threaten Mr. Lawliet, now would it?"

L's eyes narrowed. "So you do not deny being Kira?" He was met with an approving silence. "Just as well. Come quietly." he kept his eyes trained upon the young man as he rose and walked out of the tavern into the blinking sunlight. No one made a move to follow him. L watched everyone closely, and turned and left, half expecting Yagami to be gone.

He was standing right outside, just waiting. To the privateer, he seemed a snake, coiled and ready to strike. He turned, and smirked at L. Then he walked in the direction of the docks. "How did you find me?"

Lawliet bit at his thumb, debating on telling his 'enemy'. He supposed it wouldn't hurt. "The _Death Note_. Your ship was seen pulling into this harbor. I happened to be in the area. I came to find you." There was more to it than that, of course. There was always more to it.

"So you arrest me. So I sit in jail for a day, then I die. And then what, Mr. Lawliet? What will become of you without our game of cat-and-mouse, our hide-and-seek? You will become bored." The privateer could not meet the other's eyes. Not those amber eyes. The ones that had shown him love for the first time. The ones that lied.

They had reached the docks. Kira stood staring up at his ship, the sleek, blackened _Death Note_. It had a nasty habit of outrunning and outgunning anything that L threw at it. Lawliet hated it. Hated the power it represented, hated the fact it stole lives faster than he could save them. He hated it more than he hated Kira. But he did not hate Light Yagami. He couldn't.

"I know." L's soft words seemed to startle the other man out of a trance. "I know." Yagami watched him as he leaned towards the ship, placing one hand upon it, cringing as it came into contact with the dark wood. "It will be lonely, won't it?"

He blinked, in a flash, he knew what was going to happen. He steeled himself, and his ears closed off at the sound of gunshot. Another, and Light watched as his second mate, Rem, fell into the dark waters. But the red blossom on the chest of one Mr. Lawliet caught his attention and held it there. He knelt over the privateer. He allowed one smirk, acknowledging his win, and then his features shifted. Grief, raw and unbounded, poured forth.

For once, L. Lawliet knew the other was not lying. He knew that the grief was real, if only to mourn the loss of a rival. The loss of a challenge. The last thing he saw were the amber eyes, and the dying of the light within them even as his own vision faded into darkness.

(*)))

He had not expected it. Without the world's greatest, no, it was the three greatest, privateer after him, he had grown complacent. Smug, easy to catch. And he was caught.

The situation reminded him of when Lawliet had cornered him, but this time, he knew there was no way out. Not with two adversaries in front of him, and a mutiny behind. His crew had blamed the death of Rem on him, especially Ryuk. Kira knew that. Light didn't care.

He ran from them, stumbing forward, as the gunshot wounds threatened to bleed him dry. He ignored the looks of all those around, blinking in confusion when he passed a young man that held the appearance of himself-when he was just a young man, starting out as a privateer. He figured it was a hallucination.

He stumbled into one of his warehouses, the one where he and his crew had stored the less valuable loot. The authorities didn't know about this place. They couldn't. He sat on the staircase heavily, breathing becoming more and more shallow. He started at the sound of footsteps.

Ryuk made his way into his line of sight, and Kira sighed with relief. Help. Perhaps he wouldn't bleed out after all. However, the taller man reached for his cutlass, and Yagami recongized the look in his first mate's eyes. The look of a killer.

He screamed as the steel point pushed its way deeper and deeper into his flesh, and gasped as the gangly man twisted the blade inside him. He shut his eyes tightly.

"What did I tell you, Light-O? You were always fated to die by my hands." He removed the sword in one swift motion, further splitting Light's skin open, allowing the precious blood to fall upon the ground. Then the footsteps receded, and Yagami's eyes opened, only to blink in confusion.

A figure dressed smartly in blue still stood in front of him, hunched over and watching him. He couldn't see the man's face, but everything about him reminded Yagami of L. He looked upwards, and found the gray eyes, and held them with his own. The last thing he noticed was the crimson staining Lawliet's blue, and the seeping of scarlet into his own white, even as his life descended into the void.

(((*)


End file.
